Big, nay, HUGE Water Cottonmouth

[U201491]

The only way to be sure that sucker is good 'n dead is to nuke it from orbit. I would shart myself and probably have a heart attack finding that whopper of a cottonmouth. The bit in the comments on that site about the cottonmouth's range not extending beyond east texas is BS - I know for a fact they are present in Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa and Oklahoma. As a kid we used to vacation in those states every couple years - visiting family, doing a lot of fishing. Saw plenty of the buggers - thankfully never got close enough to get bit. I watched one cottonmouth hang out at the base of a jetty attacking sunfish I had previously caught and thrown back - a 2 foot long cottonmouth trying to eat a 6 inch long bluegill was interesting to say the least.

When running trot lines or jug lines, we would see them swimming near the boat a lot too. Not to keen on that behavior either. I love the fishing the midwest states have to offer but some of the other wildlife (like cotton mouths and copperheads and rattlers) need to go. I'd rather have feral cats than snakes around - especially poisonous snakes.

With the spines in some of those fishes fins they better be going down the head first direction LOL